Because I can only subject my poor friends and family to my political rantings and ravings for so long.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Paul Steps Down

"I will not lead our party into another election."

Paul Martin does the classy, graceful and honourable thing and steps down as leader of the Liberal Party. As he said in his speech, we can just call him Paul now. Personally, I'll continue to call him one of the best prime ministers that could have been, along with Joe Clark and Kim Campbell.

Have a happy retirement from politics, Paul; you deserve better for what you did for this country. From getting us out of deficit to extending equal rights to your fellow citizens, I truly hope that history remembers you kindly.

2 Comments:

Martin was very tired through this campaign. It was very visible. I don't think it's in his personality to deal with this kind of strain.

However, he did do some good things for the country. For one, he set the bar high for balancing budgets. That's a good, solid legacy. He also kept Canada calm through the Gomery affair.

I don't believe he was involved in the scandal in any way, except perhaps in accepting that Canadian party politics pulls in the direction of corruption. But stepping down allows his party to move past Gomery.

The Liberals will need a fresh look and feel (and new party policies on ethics) if they hope to get back into power.

As many people said last night on CBC, it's still a liberal country. It was just drawing a line in the sand: liberal but not stupid.